Mumbai: Simply as he backpedaled in defence, Ulhas KS took a pointy step ahead to intercept a move. He then charged up the courtroom a couple of paces earlier than delivering a move to a teammate, who went on to attain. Within the house of only a few seconds, the 26-year-old from Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu turned the first-ever Indian to play in and make his mark within the top-flight Serbian Nationwide Basketball League, Division 1.
Tamil Nadu’s Ulhas KS is the primary Indian to play within the Serbian basketball league. (FIBA)
“All I have been through in my journey, all the performances and hard work, it has led to this,” Ulhas tells HT over the telephone from Serbia, the place he performs for Novi Pazar.
“When I found out I was getting a chance to play in one of the biggest leagues in Europe, I was very happy and excited. It was worth the wait.” It did take the Indian nationwide participant a while to regulate to the brand new atmosphere. The language barrier was a difficulty, as was the truth that he’s a vegetarian in a rustic the place choices are few and much between. Then there’s the cruel European winter.
“It’s currently minus 13,” he provides with fun.
However Serbia is a rustic that loves its basketball – and its gamers. Whereas it could have taken him a while to regulate to the local weather and tradition, Novi Pazar shortly warmed as much as the participant who wears the No. 24 jersey for the crew.
“Everyone in the city seems to know me and know where I stay,’ he says. ‘I meet people when I’m out at a restaurant or a grocery store, and they offer to pay for my bill, or the shopkeeper gives me things for free. It’s a cold country with warm people.”
There may be loads of help for him from the followers and his teammates, however he needed to earn his place on the crew’s roster. He could also be new to Serbia, a rustic whose males’s basketball crew gained bronze on the 2024 Paris Olympics, however he’s not new to European basketball.
His basketball journey started when, in Class 4, he had to enroll in an extracurricular exercise. The three sports activities he knew on the time – cricket, soccer, and volleyball – had no accessible spots, so his instructor instructed he strive basketball.
“I remember asking her what it was,” he provides. “But after a few days, I made the team. In a few years, I realized that I was playing well, and my parents started to support me. The only condition was that I had to continue studying and do well in school. That was the deal.”
His tutorial pursuits led him to the College of Westchester in England, the place, as captain in his second 12 months, he guided the crew to the home title.
“That was where I first started to learn the European style of play,” he says. “It made it easy for me to transition from there (to what I experienced in Serbia).”
The velocity and physicality are at a a lot larger stage in Serbia, however a key element of the type of play there, Ulhas explains, is that the game-style is crew centric.
“It’s all about doing the job the team needs, whether it is defending for 48 minutes straight or going on to shoot,” he says.
“But here, the level of details provided to help prepare is at a much higher level. For example, if I’m guarding a right-handed player, then I’m told to push him to the left, or the other way around. Or if a shooter is weak, then I take two steps back. There are details made for each player to follow, and then the team role comes in as well.”
Off the courtroom, he has began to gel properly along with his teammates. He recollects a automotive trip wherein one among his teammates performed a preferred Punjabi music on his telephone whereas the remainder of the group began to bop. “They’ve now started to try and sing it as well,” he says.
On the courtroom, nonetheless, he nonetheless has some option to go.
Up to now this season, the 6-foot-1 level guard has made two appearances in his crew’s 15 matches, however there’s nonetheless an extended option to go within the season.
He’s taken a couple of small steps thus far, however he’s hoping to make higher leaps quickly sufficient.